Aaron Mooy is one of plenty disappointed people in red and black. Source: Getty Images

ONCE bitten, twice crying. If it was agony enough for Western Sydney to lose the second grand final of their brief existence, the knowledge they came so close to a history-making win will darken their mood for a long time to come.

This was worse for the Wanderers than last year’s defeat at this stage, for this time they thought they had done enough.

It was almost the perfect heist — almost, but not quite. With four minutes to go and a goal to good, Western Sydney could almost touch the glory. But even in his last game for the club, Besart Berisha proved to be the Roar’s Suncorp insurance, and Henrique’s extra-time winner gave Brisbane its piece of history with a record third title.

Besart Berisha brought to tears
1:29

Departing Brisbane Roar striker and match winner Besart Berisha is brought to tears after the Roar's record breaking third Champions title

Fox Sports

04 May 2014

Sport/Football/A-League/Previews & Reviews

For 86 minutes, the Wanderers were a distillation of Popovic’s personality — intense, focused, and utterly, utterly driven. Aware his side was overawed by their debut on the biggest stage 12 months before, their coach’s focus on the core essentials was absolute.

So there was a trace of satisfaction on his face at half-time, for the red and black had been dominant from kick off and showed not a trace of nervousness. If the first half was an arm-wrestle it was the visiting coach with more to take from it — the merciless pursuit of Roar’s attempts at possession was unending, even if it left little room for an aesthetic contest.

There was so little time on the ball for the home side that there seemed as many long passes as short — Thomas Broich was toiling incessantly, twisting in possession and searching for a chink to play in behind Western Sydney’s defence. In the end, it was his class — in tandem with Berisha — that pulled Brisbane back from the brink.

Yet for so long, Roar struggled to find answers to the pressure of the field-wide pressing of Popovic’s frontline, and the effectiveness of it was undeniable. If “choked” is often a big-match label, here it was less to do with a loss of nerve and everything about what Western Sydney were doing to their opponents.

Normally so assured in possession, Brisbane were demonstrably rattled on the ball — before Western Sydney scored, the only threat to their Ante Covic in their goal was a mis-hit cross from Ivan Franjic that looped on to the top of the bar, and a skimming shot by Broich that flashed just wide.

It was cruel that Broich should have to be at fault when the Wanderers scored — flat-footed as Spiranovic’s powerful header flew in at the near post — after the brilliance with which he has led Brisbane’s saunter to the Premier’ Plate.

Matthew Spiranovic 'It's an empty feeling'
0:44

But typically it sparked Broich to even more frenzied attempts at finding an equaliser — his was the elegant reverse pass that opened up the Wanderers to give Berisha a sight of goal before Spiranovic’s inspired block, and the German again brushed the outside of Covic’s post with a shot.

If there was a turning point that the Wanderers might look back on, it came when Nikolai Topor-Stanley damaged knee ligaments in a tackle, and with La Rocca dropping into defence, Brisbane finally were able to take a grip on midfield.

The final stages were an orange crescendo, Broich behind it all, and it had to be his freekick — delivered with a perfect arc — that allowed Berisha to slip between La Rocca and Spiranovic and nod home the equaliser.

Tellingly, there was not a flicker of reaction from Popovic at that. But when Henrique was gifted the freedom of the stadium late into extra time, with time to miscontrol the ball and still smash home Brisbane’s second, Popovic’s shoulders slumped. Even the soldiers of his revolution couldn’t come back from that.

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